Doctor Nora Martinez, for instance, is not especially game for such activities. And this is even after she witnessed the ailing pilot of Regis Airways Flight 753 transform into a monstrous creature from Hell, right before her very eyes. His head bashed to ribbons at the end of last week’s episode, Nora joined fellow scientist (and sometimes lover) Ephraim Goodweather to perform an autopsy on the late pilot’s body, revealing that his corpse, like fellow vampire newbie Gabriel Bolivar, lacks genitalia; what’s worse, the decaying body has a “six foot python” for a tongue, and in its final act of nastiness, it farts out a huge cloud of ammonia, connecting the dots of why ammonia was sprayed all over the Regis plane.
Even seeing this monster firsthand, however, Nora can’t bring herself to accept that destroying the pilot’s corpse and all other similar monstrosities is the right course of action. She comes to this conclusion during a particularly harrowing encounter with Emma, the vamped-up little girl who listens to “This Old Man” and the “Lion King” soundtrack, and feasts on the blood of her doting father, despite having died no more than 72 hours earlier.
When Eph and Nora visit Emma’s home to find out more, they encounter the blood-thirsty Emma. After artfully dodging her python tongue for a moment or two, Eph and Nora are rescued by the arrival of pawn shop dealer and veteran vampire slayer Abraham Setrakian, who slices Emma’s head clean off with his cane sword. Seconds later, Abraham slays Emma’s father, who also turned full-vampire after Emma feasted on him two episodes ago.
Despite owing her life to Abraham’s eleventh-hour arrival, Nora refuses to accept that “murdering” twelve-year-old, or anyone, no matter how dead or potentially devastating, is the right course of action. As a scientist, she believes there’s still hope for curing the lethal strain that’s secretly coursing through New York City’s veins. But Eph disagrees. Given the speed with which the strain has spread, he’s putting his eggs in the Setrakian basket — the only way to contain the outbreak is to kill every man, woman and child on the Regis flight manifest, and he’s ready to help Abraham make that a reality.
Perhaps Nora would get on board the vampire-slaying plan if she knew just how far-reaching the threat has become (ailing Eldritch Palmer is already negotiating with politicians to spin the news of the Regis-borne disease, even though he knows full well what’s coming), or if she knew the horrors it would inspire in her fellow human beings (newly-minted vampire Ansel Barbour, one of four Regis survivors, feasts on his neighbor, all because Ansel’s wife wants to satiate her husband’s hunger).
Perhaps. Then again, killing “innocent” creatures — man, woman, child, young, old, and otherwise — simply isn’t for everyone. And based on current events, the people who can’t get on board are very likely to become vampire chow in the very near future.
